Notes Oct 4-7

The AP Exam

• not penalized for wrong guesses- so always make a guess!
• 55 mulitiple choice questions: you should get all 1&2 questions correct, most of the 3&4 questions correct, and some of the 5 level questions correct (more opinionated kind of questions)
• flash cards of some literary terms to know for exam: http://quizlet.com/731802/ap-english-exam-glossary-flash-cards/
• essay section 120 min- 3 essays, 2 closed, one open prompt
• 2 different exams to take: AP Lit Exam and AP Language and Composition Exam (non fiction): check if you can get credit for both
• http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_englit.html
• more on how to prepare for exam: http://www.ehow.com/how_6029866_prepare-ap-english-literature-exam.html
• cross word puzzle to practice some literary terms: http://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/best/vocabulary/ap.english.01.html

Closed Readings

• Read (the promt)
• Analyze (your essay)
• Plan (a response)
• Write (your essay)
• Analyze (its effectiveness)
• Revise (content, structure, and usage)

Given a passage to read and then write about.

How does author use technique, and what does it mean?

• meaning= context+significance 
• Don't forget the hidden "So what?" question

The Open Prompt

2 main categories of questions:

• critical theory questions- make a statement about the function of a literary element and show how this is true of some pieces you've already read.
• content questions- theme focused, have to show how this theme is developed in a piece you've already read.

Have to recall previously read literature to support responses.

• may ask for only pieces in a certain time period, or a certain type of literature (poems, novels, etc.)
• So be efficient: have a poem from one time period, and a novel from another to cover both possibilities.

A video I found with a song about AP English with allusions to the bible and novels and other things about the class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_58HDK2meZg

Connections: There was a complete connection with this class and my psychology class when we learned about the psychoanalytical criticism. We just finished learning about Jung and Freud in that class.

Notes Sept 27- Oct 1

Writing Style and Syntax


Nuts and Bolts of College Writing packets

• Clarity- being clear in thoughts and words
• to achieve clarity use...
• short active verbs- to convey action
• subjects that match up with their actors- to bring main action into subject-verb part of the sentence
• sustained flow of sentence from one point of view- keep story unfolding in a way that is easy for the reader to follow.
• concision- to keep reader focused on what's important
• fewer labels and more clause based on active verbs and clear actors
• instead of many complicated words- just use a few strong words to keep it clear and concise.
• build grammatical units around logical units- put actions into verbs and actors into subjects
• ex: "society is witnessing the steady progression of women towards equality..." -->"society is witnessing women's steady progression towards equality."
• Clause v. Phrase
• 2 parts of a clause: 
• noun acting as a subject
• finite, conjugated verb attached to that subject
• limited sense of time--> finite conjugated verb--> clause
• ex: "Girl walks"- finite conjugated verb- clause                                  
• "Girl walking"- no finite conjugated verb- phrase
• active voice- subject of verb performs action
• passive voice- subject receives actions
• nominalization- typical problem of student's writing
• action expressed as noun 
• allow actions to be separated from their actors
• long, shapeless strings of words
• http://www.wheaton.edu/learnres/writectr/Resources/clarity.htm
• Plain Style
• Strive to be...
• sensibly simple
• to develop a baseline style of short words
• use active verbs, simple sentence that convey clear actions or identities
• trying to teach reader something- you want to be understood
• teachers want to read in papers that you didn't just learn about the lesson- you thought about it.
• plainness better than complexity
• avoid first person, jokes, or playfulness
• scared to write plain-> don't want to expose themselves or sound dumb
• http://www.editorialservice.com/11ways.html
• Concision
• key to concision:
• build around strong verbs
• choose active voice over passive
• be suspicious of adverbs
• toss out empty words and phrases
• http://www.colorado.edu/pwr/writingtips/27.html
• Rhetoric- art or science of persuasion by means of stylistic and structural techniques
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/1
• encourages us to think of writing as a series of strategic choices
• encourages thinking about one's audience
• Academic writing- use more formal diction
• Jargon, Official Style diction
• police wouldn't say car, robber, gun, or saw but rather vehicle, alleged perpetrator, firearm, strike, and observed.
• Parallelism- any structure that brings together parallel elements
• Trouble: nested lists
• Fixes: 
• rearrange list to emphasize different elements and allow some pauses
• inversion
• focus attention to end of sentence
• Repetition- bring attention to an idea, image, or relationship to force reader to notice it.
• Very well know example: Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech
• Don't change tense in term paper!
• Rule of Three- lists come across more powerfully when they contain three items
• third term larger in force than first two

Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style

• How does author use technique to create affect and what does it mean?
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• People should live simple lives
• parallelism to show signifigance
• "...and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I can to die, discover that I had not lived."
• "...like ants..." negative connotation of society
• Repetition- "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!"
• length of sentence= simplicity
• "Eva Is Inside Her Cat" by Gabriel Gracia Marquez
• Bearing burden of upper class- want to be ordinary not upper class
• - ing verbs-->make seem more rushed and desperate
• some short sentence- attention to statement
• "But it was necessary, urgent, to put a stop..." -> asyndeton- rushed
• desperate and forced
• "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" by Mark Twain
• Dunlap tries to change his name- make himself more upper class- sentences get longer as it goes on.
• "Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence
• many periods used combined with alternation of long and short sentences
• compound sentences at beginning creates dramatic irony
• inverted syntax
• "Although they lived in style, they felt always an anxiety in the house."
• always anxiety in house- a part of the house
• "The mother had a small income, and the father had a small income..."
• separates mother and father- 2 different incomes but both small
• "there must be more money, there must be more money."
• comma creates rhythm
• repetition
• http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides5/RockingHorse.html
• "Shooting and Elephant" by George Orwell
• imperialist crippling people
• against it
• "devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd." - negative tone
• "but he was not dead," "but his breathing did not weaken," "but still he did not die,"   -repetition and words at end of sentence for emphasis

Connections

    When we discussed active and passive voice, that really stuck out to me since I remember last year my English teacher told me that was something I had to work on. I also focused on all the ideas about clarity, concision, and rhetoric as I edited my college application essays, and it was really helpful to know what to focus on. 

Notes Sept 20-24

Figurative Language
Figures of speech examples and other definitions: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/figures-of-speech-examples.html


Chapter 5: Figurative Language- Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Apostrophe, Metonymy

• Figure of Speech- any way of saying something other than the ordinary way 
• adds extra dimensions
• can say what we want more vividly and forcefully
• saying one thing while meaning another
• http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/20figures.htm
• Figurative Language-uses figures of speech
• not taken literally
• simile and metaphor
• 4 forms
1. both literal and figurative terms are named 
2. literal term named and figurative term is implied
3. literal term implied and figurative term named
4. both literal and figurative terms are implied
• Personification- gives animals, objects or concepts human-like attributes
• http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112392/personification.html
• Apostrophe- addressing someone absent or dead or something nonhuman as if the person were present and alive and could reply
• Synecdoche and Metonymy- 
• both substitute detail/quality of experience for experience itself
• common examples in language:
• red head (red haired person)
• tongues (languages)
• boiling kettle (water in kettle)
• metonymy v. synecdoche http://www.buzzle.com/articles/metonymy-vs-synecdoche.html
• "Imaginative pleasure," bring additional imagery, add emotional intensity, brief way of saying something

Chapter 6: Figurative Language- Symbol and Allegory

• Symbol- something that means more than it is.
• wary in degree of identification and definition given to them by their authors.
• 
• http://www.offthemark.com/search-results/key/symbol/ 
• Allegory- narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface

Chapter 7: Figurative Language- paradox, overstatement, understatement, irony

• Paradox- an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true 
• a situation or statement
• 
• Overstatement (or hyperbole)- exaggeration of truth
• adding emphasis to what you mean
• example: "i'll die if I don't pass this class."
• humorous, grave, restrained, convincing or unconvincing
• Understatement- say less than one means 
• example: "this looks like a nice shack."
• said with less force than situation should requires
• Irony- has meanings that extend beyond it's use.
• Verbal Irony- saying opposite of what one means 
• *not sarcasm or satire- imply ridicule
• sarcasm- bitter speech intended to wound a person's feelings
• satire- more formal, written literature
• higher motive-ridicule of human folly or vice
• to bring reform or keep people from falling into similar folly
• **doesn't have to use sarcastic intent
• example: "Here's some bad news for you; you got all A's and B's." (ironic but not sarcastic)
• http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/cc-verbal_irony.htm

The Rhetorical Situation- the context of communication

• Evaluate elements of communication to figure out how to respond
• Rhetoric- art of communication
• Elements- 
• Subject: what is your topic? main ideas?
• Purpose: what you want to get out of this.
• Main purposes-
• Entertain- rousing emotion/imagination
• Reflect- reflecting "us" (journals, blogs, etc)
• Inform- convey facts (dictionary, encyclopedia, etc)
• Persuade- change audience's ideas (editorials, political, speeches, etc)
• Audience: who are you writing to? (age, education level, expectations)
• Speaker(Persona): what kind of person do you want to seem like? (yourself/fictional personality, attitude) what would connect you to audience?
• Think ahead to avoid bad communication.

Argument- persuasive communication

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/
• Logical Argument (logos)
• Appeals to Ethnics (ethos)
• Appeals to Emotions (pathos)
• Parts: 
• conclusion and premise
• thesis
• claim- an assertion- idea not a simple fact. Series of claims to support thesis.
• warrant- explanation of reasoning- warrants tie evidence to claims.                                             *don't leave reasoning in head!
• evidence- facts that show that your claims are reasonable.
• necessary- "needed"- necessary elements of an argument or things that can't be ignored. Individual ideas.
• sufficient- "enough"- when condition of sufficiency is met, you have done enough to make your case.
• many types of arguments (proposal, of evolution, of fact)
• (we will mostly write cause and effect arguments)
• Steps:
• Thesis
1. consider rhetorical situations- audience, expectations
2. make a plan- what's problem, analysis, side I've chosen
• claim, evidence, warrants, evidence, warrants...
• no gaps in chain of dominoes- so last domino (thesis) tips. 

Notes Sept 13-17

Poetry

Language condensed to artistic affect. 

Poetry is a wilderness and you can explore it but can't conquer all of it 

          -teacher usually takes you on an easy "guided nature walk"

no real answers 

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?

start=2&search=main&catref=aban354&MA_Artist=&MA_Category=&ANDkeyword=AP+English&ORkeyword=&TITLEkeyword=&NEGATIVEkeyword= 

If it takes longer to tell of text than to read it → poetry

           America: Love it or Leave it Bumper Sticker- NOT a poem  

                 (takes longer to explain than read but no artistic affect)

Chapter 1: What is Poetry

• http://www.poetry-online.org/writing-poetry.htm
• not always a main message or noble truth
• not everything in poetry is beautiful
• experience
• convey broad spectrum of human life
• evoke emotional and intellectual responses
• multi-dimensional- 4 dimensions- intelligence, sense, emotions, and imagination

Chapter 2: Reading the Poem

• Ways to develop understanding and appreciation: 
• read it more than once
• keep and use a dictionary (mythology book and Bible also good reference)
• read aloud of lip-read
• pay careful attention to what poem is saying
• read slowly and don't exaggerate rhythmical pattern
• paraphrase poem to understand theme
• Ask yourself: "what is central purpose of poem?"                                                            (tell story, reveal human character, express mood, etc.)
• *When poet uses "I' or "me"- not necessarily talking about themselves

"Hidden Meanings" Poem

• male-female struggle 
• full of sexual innuendos
• women have power- men are powerless- mothers abuse sons in poem and father are too weak to stop them.
• poem highlights the boys of fairy tales instead of the typical women that are always mentioned.

Chapter 3: Denotation and Connotation

• denotation- exact definition in dictionary
• connotation- cultural baggage for word

    negative                   positive
<-----------------[]--------------------->     
gaunt  skinny   thin    slender    svelte
   "pejorative"             "honorific"

• used to get right words for character, setting, or events
• consciously shapes text
• http://classweb.gmu.edu/bhawk/101/semiotics/decon.html
• example: childlike and childish means a "character of a child" but can also mean/suggest meekness or innocence

Chapter 4: Imagery

• seeing, hearing, smelling, fealing
• express experience to reader
• example: gives sense of love in poem without even saying that word
• reader virtually sees and feels what the lover felt and saw

Concreteness v. Abstraction

• how specific is naming in the language
• clothes, pants, jeans, Levis-----> more concrete
• abstraction of word- depends on effect desired

Precision

• Nice! Cool! Sweet! --> very vague
• not always appropriate to be extremely specific- depends on situation

Elevation v. Colloquialism

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  slang   colloquial language   elevated diction   epic diction

Dialect, jargon, regionalism, etc.

• relate directly to one region or profession or group of people (expressions, regional humor...)
• example: pop, soda, and coke- mean same thing in different regions
• http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/cumming/ling50/jargon.html
•